A lot of great things are going on. In many ways, the past 30 years have been the best in world history. But we can do much better. I prefer the word hope over optimism. Rutger Bregman Read Quote
Nowadays excessive work and pressure are status symbols. Time to oneself is sooner equated with unemployment and laziness, certainly in countries where the wealth gap has widened. Rutger Bregman Read Quote
I am part of a broad social movement. Ten years ago, it would have unimaginable for some random Dutch historian to go viral when talking about taxes. Yet here we are. Rutger Bregman Read Quote
Most bayonets throughout history have probably not been used because soldiers just can’t do it, something holds them back… the same goes for shooting the enemy. We’ve got this fascinating evidence from the Second World War, and also from other wars, that most soldiers couldn’t do it. Rutger Bregman Read Quote
Almost no one raises the real issue of tax avoidance, right? And of the rich just not paying their fair share. Rutger Bregman Read Quote
The greatest sin of the academic left is that it has become fundamentally aristocratic, writing in bizarre jargon that makes cliches seem abstruse. If you can’t explain your ideal to a fairly intelligent 12-year-old, it’s probably your own fault. Rutger Bregman Read Quote
But the underdog socialists’ biggest problem isn’t that they are wrong. They are not. Their biggest problem is that they’re dull. Dull as a doorknob. They’ve got no story to tell; nor even the language to convey it in. Rutger Bregman Read Quote
The world view of the underdog socialist is encapsulated in the notion that the establishment has mastered the game of reason, judgment and statistics, leaving the left with emotion. Its heart is in the right place. Rutger Bregman Read Quote
While it won’t solve all the world’s ills – and ideas such as a rent cap and more social housing are necessary in places where housing is scarce – a basic income would work like venture capital for the people. Rutger Bregman Read Quote
The great thing about money is that people can use it to buy things they need instead of things self-appointed experts think they need. Rutger Bregman Read Quote
